Work Text:
Roman was startled out of his spaced-out state as he heard the clang of a cup beside him. He looked up, Logan had placed down the mug he was drinking out of, head stuck in a book. Roman huffed, he had no idea why Logan liked reading human books, he’d tried, it was so boring.
He blinked a few times to adjust his vision, how long had he spaced out for? He was looking at… he looked back over at the couch, Virgil was playing some video game or something, Roman was bored, so he thought he could just watch. Virgil hadn’t seemed to notice. Roman glanced at Logan once more, rolling his eyes when Logan didn’t even acknowledge him.
He waved his hand in front of the other’s face, and after a moment, Logan seemed to finally notice, as he pushed Roman’s hand out of his face. He looked down at Roman, who was slouched against the counter top, with a quizzical look. Roman sighed again, this time longer, “What? I’m bored.”
“I believed you were busy watching Virgil.” Logan said simply, “Can i go back to my book now?” Roman huffed once more, “No! Anyways, i got bored of that.” Logan shrugged, “I don’t know what you’re asking me for. Why not just go and go and play his digitized game with him? He seems very absorbed in it.”
Roman perked up at that, “Good idea!” He strode from the kitchen into the living room, then practically skipped over to the couch. “Virgil!” He sing-songed. Virgil jumped slightly, snapping his head around to look at Roman with wide eyes. Roman grinned and waved, “Hello!”
Virgil let out a somewhat relieved sigh, “Don’t do that, you scared me.” He said sternly, but his tone quickly lightened afterwards, “Anyways, what is it?” He placed down the controller he was holding beside him. Roman looked at it with curiosity, “Whatcha’ doin?” He asked. Virgil stared at him with a hardened look for a moment, “... Did you watch phineas and ferb?”
Roman blinked, completely lost, “... What?” Virgil smirked and rolled his eyes, “Nevermind. I’m playing minecraft.” Roman tilted his head, “Minecraft?” Virgil nodded, “Yeah, it’s a game where you can either play in survival, where you gather items and craft and build stuff, or creative where you can just build whatever you want. I have a creative world right now that i’ve spent far too many hours on because i have no life. Plus there are mobs like skeletons and creepers and they try and kill you,” Virgil paused for a moment, “It’s a kid-friendly game though none of it is graphic in any way, don’t get the wrong idea you demon heathen.”
Roman was still looking muddled, brows furrowed as he tried to process what Virgil had just said. Virgil chuckled, “Come here, i’ll show you.” At that, there was no hesitation from Roman as he jumped over the back of the couch and plopped down next to Virgil, eyes lit up with excitement.
Virgil handed him another controller, after a second of getting over the fact Roman had just jumped over the couch, “It’ll probably take you a while to pick up on the controls.” He explained, then started to teach Roman the controls. It took a while and if they hadn’t been in creative Roman, would have died a hundred times, but they got there in the end.
“Alright, let’s make a new world in survival and see how fast you die.” Virgil said with a smirk. Roman gasped, “How dare you! I am the prince of minecraft!” Virgil raised an eyebrow, “Wouldn’t the king of minecraft be better?”
Roman hummed, “I’d prefer to be a prince. Regal life without the responsibility of running everything.” Virgil snorted, “You lazy oaf.” Roman nudged him on the arm, “Hey!” The new world loaded up, capturing both of their attention, leaving their bickering far behind.
They spent hours playing, not that either of them noticed the time passing, they’d gotten so wrapped up in the game. Eventually, Patton and Janus came home, coming through the door with groceries. They stopped by the couch, “What are you two doing?” Janus asked, as if they were doing something suspicious.
“I’m trying to beat Virgil in the race to get diamonds!” Roman hissed. “Ha! As if, noobie!” Virgil shot, neither of them taking their eyes off the screen for even a second, fully devoted to the game. Janus rolled his eyes, “Dorks.”
As it started to get dark, Virgil finally realised how long they’d been playing. He groaned, squinting as his eyes readjusted to the light change he hadn’t previously noticed. “Alright, i think i’m going to burn my eyeballs if we keep playing.”
He stood up, stretching out as a yawn came out. “Awe, but i’m having fun!” Roman whined. Virgil smiled at him, “Yeah, i know, but seriously, it’s not good for you to play video games all day with no break or change.” He went over to the tv, switching it back from the game console, “We can watch something though, a movie or series, on netflix?” He offered.
Roman gasped, “That sounds like fun!” Virgil pulled up netflix and settled back down on the couch, “What do you wanna watch?” He asked. Roman shrugged, “I don’t know, i don’t know human stuff, remember?”
Virgil scoffed, “Don’t you think you’ve been here long enough to pick some stuff up? I’ve already shown you a few shows, and i showed you disney.” Roman gasped, “Disney! Can we watch some disney!?”
“Sure, i love me some good ol’ disney.” Virgil said, he’d almost forgotten how much Roman had loved the disney films Virgil had already shown him and dorked out at Virgil’s disney merch. Out of nowhere, Roman jumped out and bolted out of the living room. Virgil looked over, baffled, why did Roman just run like he’d seen a grizzly bear? But Roman was back almost as soon as he was gone, except this time he was holding snacks and drinks, somehow all at once, with… “HOLY SHIT, YOU HAVE- ARMS--”
Roman raised an eyebrow, “Uh, yeah, i have arms? Did you not realise before? Virgil, i’d had arms this entire time, you have arms too, are you okay?” Virgil shook his head, eyes wide and full of bewilderment, “You-- you have four.” Roman blinked, “What- i- Oh, right, humans don’t do that.”
It wasn’t that unusual for demons to grow an extra limb or two when necessary, but Virgil looked like he was about to pass out from pure shock. Roman put the food and drinks he was holding down on the coffee table, easily retracting the extra pair of arms he’d grown.
He sat down, “Better?” He asked, waving his normal amount of two arms around to emphasise the others were gone. A moment of silence passed before there was a small nod from Virgil, “I- uh- yeah… so… demons can… do that?” Roman nodded, “Yepperino!” Virgil looked him up and down, “Right.. Okay… that’s not at all horrifying.”
Roman grinned, “It is, isn’t it?” Virgil sighed, “What was i expecting? You’re a demon.” Roman gave another grin of satisfaction as Virgil picked out a disney film, rolling his eyes for what felt like the hundredth time that day. “Thanks for the snacks by the way, but seriously, don’t eat too much you greedy nuisance.” Virgil added, just before the film started blaring and they both went quiet.
Everything had gone calm, no one else in the apartment was about, the movie was almost at its end and it was getting pretty late. Roman was so engrossed in the film he didn’t even notice Virgil beside him, who had barely slept the night before, was falling asleep on the couch.
Roman didn’t realise until a head flopped onto his shoulder, he gazed down, confused, and that’s when he caught sight of the sleeping human next to him. He almost froze, this being an uncanny situation for a demon. Normally, if a situation like this would of happened back home, he would have just shrugged Virgil off, maybe pushed him for extra effort, but he didn’t want to. Something he’d realised, and something he thought Logan and Remus must have been realising also, was that humans had a certain unique charm about them.
Not because they were trying to be charming, but because there was just something about them, the way they acted and spoke, the things they did and the relationships they had. Everything about them was so new and different, and something about once you go to know them, made you want to not carelessly hurt them or belittle them, it sort of made you want to see them… not… miserable?
Listen, Roman was new to all this, okay? He was desperately trying to figure out these new feelings and what in the heck was making him act so different around these humans, especially Virgil, but it was, as said, new. He didn’t know yet.
But what he did know was that, in that moment, he didn’t want to brush Virgil off and abruptly wake him from his slumber. So instead, he grabbed the remote and turned off the tv, then, trying his best not to jostle the human too much, scooped Virgil up into his arms.
It was strangely silent as he walked down the hallway, he knew Logan and Remus were awake, demons didn’t need to sleep after all, and even though they were capable of it, they tended not too. He reached Virgil’s door, pushing it open with his leg, carrying the human inside.
Roman smiled, he liked Virgil’s room, he liked his posters and his colour choice, it was a nice shade of purple and it went well with his black furniture. He went over to the bed, intending on only placing Virgil down and going about his business, but he found himself pausing at the side of the bed.
Virgil was still blissfully asleep, head leaning into Roman’s chest, but while Virgil normally looked exhausted and stressed, he looked so peaceful in his sleep, and Roman… Roman didn’t want to let go of him. Ever since he’d been introduced to the idea of cute things, he just couldn’t stop obsessing over the idea.
Anything even remotely endearing made him want to grab it and never let it go. Not very demon-ish of him, but he couldn’t help it. And right then, Virgil might as well of been a tiny fluffy soft bunny rabbit. In his mind, Roman knew Virgil’s personality was definitely far from that, but still… he pondered for a moment, looking from the bed to Virgil. If he put Virgil down… the bed would be cold, he couldn’t do that, a cold bed is the cruelest of all, he couldn’t do that to this poor sleeping human!
Okay, so maybe he was being a little dramatic. He huffed internally, he knew he had to put Virgil down before he woke up or the other would freak out, but it was hard. Why couldn’t humans just let you hold them like tiny kittens whenever you felt like it? Eventually he lowered the other down onto the bed, trying his best to be gentle, not something he was quite an expert at, but he was trying.
He couldn’t help himself from at least giving Virgil a quick kiss on the head, but he left it there, he wasn’t even sure why he suddenly had the urge to show the small display of affection in the first place, but it felt nice. He knew he shouldn’t try anything more, the last thing he needed was Virgil losing it on him. Apparently humans were not fans of having people creepily stand in their bedrooms and watching them sleep, weirdly enough, so he left.
He sighed as he went back to the couch, what was going on with him? He felt this strange sensation around Virgil, whenever he would give a small smile or a little genuine laugh, Roman felt like his heart was going to beat out of his chest. He was actually wondering if somehow he actually had gained a heartbeat, despite that being impossible for a demon.
Still, he couldn’t deny something about Virgil was just… different. New, strange, unfamiliar and… intriguing. Well, he knew that he found the other attractive, but that wasn’t new. What was new was how he was going about it, usually he was pretty forward, as a demon, it’s not like chivalry and courtship were really a thing. But this was different. He’d watched a few romance shows and films, and he’d gathered somewhat of an idea of what humans did when they found each other attractive. But their idea seemed to have a lot of other things attached to it.
He’d heard of a crush before, of course, but in hell people only used it to describe someone you wanted to hook up with or some shit. It seemed to have a more complex meaning in the overworld. A meaning with feelings attached, feelings Roman was unfamiliar with. That’s what was confusing him, what were they, how did they work, what did it feel like, why do people get them? It’s far too complicated, he liked it better when his feelings were the basics, none of this complicated human crap.
He let out another sigh, humans are so weird. He hadn’t expected for their emotions and way of relationships to affect him. How was that fair? He only wanted to know about human stuff, not gain their complicated ass emotional complex and go through a series of troubling new feelings for a snarky emo boy he just met!
He flopped down onto the couch, he was really missing the summoning abilities in hell, having to do everything by hand was a chore. He knew he needed to clean up the mess on the coffee table, but he sort of wanted to try sleeping, he hadn’t slept in god knows how many years.
It couldn’t hurt to try it again, it was somewhat relaxing after all. He grabbed a blanket off the back of the couch and tugged it over himself, turning onto his side and closing his eyes.